Quote of the Day

"Success is never final; failure is never fatal. It is courage that counts." Winston Churchill

Quote of the Day 12-14-2011

"Men will always be making mistakes as long as they are striving after something" - Goethe

Grace Wins

The other day I was reading once again about grace and the overwhelming thing that it is. Yes, it was in “The Ragamuffin Gospel” by Brennen Manning, but don't worry, I am not continuing the small series I started a few weeks ago.


The grace that the death of Jesus Christ has wrought on humanity is the most complex phenomenon in the history of the world. There is nothing that compares to the freedom and liberation that grace brings to those who accept this free gift.

While reading “The Ragamuffin Gospel” by Brennen Manning this week I rediscovered the promise that “nothing can separate us from the love of God” (Romans 8:30 NLT). No matter whether we are children of God or not there is nothing that can separate us from the love that He has for us. This verse does not give a disclaimer that a person needs to accept God's free gift of grace only that there is nothing that can separate us from His love.

The meaning of this verse has eluded me for quite some time. It's not that it is a hard verse to understand in theory and thought. It's that it is so hard to understand in heart. It is easy to understand when life is going like a bowl of cherries, but when life turns on us and we feel the crushing wait of sin, shame, and guilt. However, the beauty of God's grace is that the wait of that sin, shame, and guilt has been lifted by the grace of Jesus Christ. No matter if you have stolen a candy bar from the local grocery store, had premarital sex, are addicted to crack, or look at porn. God still loves you.

There is a disclaimer here because God does absolutely, positively love you without reservation, but He absolutely, positively hates the sin that you have committed. It is also worth noting that you are not your sin. You and I are a sinful beings by nature, but grace has changed that. Grace doesn't mean we will never sin again, but it does mean that we are free to struggle against sin and in the end grace wins.

Doctor's Orders

So I was just watching a favorite T.V. talk show of mine called "The Doctors" on ABC. The hosts are Medical Doctors, Psychologists, and Physical Trainers. Today's show was about men and how they are not so good at sex. They gave some very good tips for better love making, but i was disturbed by an answer that was given to a caller to the show. The Caller: "I recently found about 150 nude pictures of other women on my husbands computer. Is this considered cheating and should I be concerned?" The Doctors: "Absolutely not! He is not cheating if he is looking at nude pictures of other women. It is not cheating because he is using it to enhancee his sexual relationship with you."
Needless to say, this has not been my experience. I have struggled with viewing pornography and I have to say that there is not about it that makes me think about my wife. In fact I draws a person away from their husband or wife. Porn is intended for personal pleasure and entrapment only. Porn is intrinsically meant and formed to make a person lust after something or someone that they don't have.
As a man who has been in a mess of hurt for viewing such things I can tell you that porn does nothing to enhance the sex life.
I consider myself four years sober as a former porn viewer and I can tell you that first, married sex is the best sex (I'm not sure how I know this because I have only had married sex, but I know people who have experienced both). Second, porn will only tear a marriage apart not bring it closer together with "better sex". When I finally got caught by my wife and nearly destroyed my marriage, I realized that sex is all about the other person not about me. Porn tells you that sex is all about you not about the other person.
If your a man who has been caught in the trap of looking at porn and you want better sex? The answer is simple, STOP WATCHING PORN!!! There are so many sad stories about men who have lost marriages because of porn. But there is help. There is a website called www.XXXchurch.com . XXXchurch has an amazing accountability software program that is free to keep you accountable while your online. I use it on all my computers and I can tell you that it will help you tremendously in your fight against porn.
My advice would be to put your pastor, wife, and one male friend as your accountability partners when you download the new software.

Finally, if you have been looking at porn the step is to admit that you have a problem, and then tell your spouse. This was the hardest thing I ever had to do and i was blessed enough to have an amazing wife who loved me through my struggles and did everything she could to help me overcome the addiction that I have. The reason I say "the addiction I have" is because like an alcoholic I will always consider myself a porn addict. Fathers I implore you to please, if you haven't already, please talk to your sons about the dangers of porn and what it means to look at women with respect.

Tilted Halos

I am learning so much from rereading "The Ragamuffin Gospel" by Brennan Manning. It is driving me to consider my own flaws and miss-steps in the light of God's unfailing love.
For many years I have felt as though I was serving others to actually serve myself. However, in the light of my self-image and the reflection I have seen in the mirror of my mind, I am more and more convinced that none of us truly serve selflessly. We get too wrapped up in us to see others. Sure we are serving on Sunday morning, trying to look like everything is ok, but the reality is that nothing is ok. We are broken inside and it is not in our power to fix it. In and of ourselves we are poor, slobbering fools who, without help, cannot accomplish anything of worth. We are dead and dying beings who try to make all the other messed up people around us feel as though we are less messed up than they are, all the while knowing full well that we are ten times worse off than all the others.
Why are we like this? Why do we try and hide who we really are? Why can't we just be who God created us to be? It all comes down to pride. We all have our halos on way too tight. There is a certain sect of people, however, who know they are worthless and do nothing to hide it. These are people who some of us as Christians view as nasty, unlovable, undesirable, useless, and hell bound.
It is interesting that those of use who come from middle class family's that struggle, but are still ok, find it so difficult to accept a loving Savior. I think it is because we do not know our own filth. But the alcoholic who wakes in the gutter, the prostitute who turns five tricks a night, the drug addict that crashed down from his high, they know that are worthless, unlovable, and undesirable. This view of themselves makes the truth of Jesus Christ so much easier to accept. It is because they have received unconditional love for what seems like the first time. When I think of this sect of people I tend to think of the brother of the prodigal son. I try to put myself in his shoes (and it comes all to naturally). He stayed home. Worked for his father like a good boy should while his brother waisted his father's inheritance on women and fast living. When the prodigal finally returns home the father throws a party for the fool. I can see where the brother would get upset. I would be too. The only difference between the prodigal and his brother is that the prodigal realized he was worthless without his father, the brother never did. The prodigal realized he needed a savior because he couldn't get out of the filth of the pig pen on his own.
My halo has been far too tight. It needs to be loosened a bit. I have been far to consumed with myself to see that true grace was waiting for me to realize that I was sitting in a pig pen eating slop. The awesomeness of God's grace is that "nothing can ever separate you (or me) from the love of God made visible in Christ Jesus our Lord". As Manning writes,

                        "Are you afraid that your weakness could separate you from the love of Christ?
                          It can't."
                        "Are you afraid that your inadequacies could separate you from the love of
                          Christ? They can't."
                        "Are you afraid that your inner poverty could separate you from the love of
                         Christ? It can't."
                        "Difficult marriage, loneliness, anxiety over the children's future? They can't."
                        "Negative self-image? It can't."
                        "Economic hardship, racial hatred, street crime? They can't."
                        "Rejection by loved ones of the suffering of loved ones? They can't."
                        "Persecution by authorities, going to jail? They can't."
                        "Nuclear war? It can't."
                        "Mistakes, fears, uncertainties? They can't."
                        "You must be convinced of this, trust it, and never forget to remember. Everything
                         else will pass away, but the love of Christ is the same yesterday, today, and
                         forever. Faith will become vision, hope will become possessions, but the love
                        of Jesus Christ that is stronger than death endures forever. In the end, it is the
                        one thing you can hang onto." (Manning, 1990)

Reference

Manning, B. (1990). The Ragamuffin Gospel. Self Published. 

Undoing of the Ragamuffin Gospel

I have come to the conclusion in the past few weeks that I have a problem with grace. I have accepted the fact that Jesus Christ died for my sin, however I never really accepted the grace that Christ's death has wrought. For many years I have worked hard for the cause of Christ, but I have gotten lost in serving rather than simply focusing on the One who served all and this is the undoing of the ragamuffin gospel.
According to Manning "the danger with our good works, spiritual investments, and all the rest of it is that we can construct a picture of ourselves in which we situate our self-worth". This is definitely where I would consider myself for the past years. I have constructed a cozy little life for myself in which I find my self-worth in all of the (while good meaning, yet destructive) activities of Christianity. I served in Church so that I would feel better about myself not to serve others out of the overflow of my heart. To be honest, I'm not sure in all of my years of ministry if there was ever a time when I had an overflow of the heart. I did allot of things in Church and other places in the name of Jesus just so that I wouldn't be lonely, not so that others would hear about Jesus or so "that they would see my good works and glorify the Lord". I served for me. I served me. In all of my service to the Church I served me, not the Church.
The realization of this is a hard pill to swallow. In fact it is more like swallowing an over stuffed pillow. How can one "serve" thinking they are serving the Church when really they are only self-serving? The danger in going back to Church (which we haven't done since we left our last one a few months ago) is that I am afraid I will dive back into the self-serving, self-destructive, rut of "serving" myself in the Church.
I need to find my worth in Christ, not in the Church. I realize I am part of the Church, and I am the Church, but others are also the Church and I continually loss myself in serving the Church rather than being the Church. Jesus didn't come to create self-serving servers, He came to create others-serving servers. I have come to realize that in order to become an others-serving server I need to find my worth in Christ not in others, because I am not really serving if I feel I have to be accepted by someone, especially God. God already accepts me as I am. He is continually working in me and through me, no matter if I choose to work within the Church or not. I am somebody because somebody died for me. Somebody chose to give up their life because they thought I was "worth" it. I did nothing to deserve a free gift like that. I didn't even know the person who died for me, and yet He still died for me. That is where my worth comes from, not from handing out bulletins at Church, or leading worship.
Once again, this life turns out to be not about you, me, or us, it is all about Him, God, the Creator of all things. Sometimes the undoing of the ragamuffin gospel can lead to its mending.

Extraordinarily Great Value

It is clear throughout the Gospels that Jesus would much rather spend His time with the ragamuffins of society than the religious leaders of His day. Not that He loved them any less, I believe He loved them just the same as all the rest, but His love for them was more of a disciplinarian type love.
Jesus hung out with the least of these for several reasons. 1) He loved being with people who knew they were not what He created them to be. He loved being with those who needed the healing He could offer. 2) He wanted to give us a picture of what we are to do. Jesus wasn't just for that time in history He is for all of history. Our calendar even revolves around when Jesus came to earth (B.C, A.D). When Jesus showed up the world had never known anyone so loving, so forgiving, so Holy.
As I continue to read The Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning I am being reminded of all of the things that Christ meant and means to us as His followers today. As of late I have been struggling with feeling as though I have fallen off of the religious bandwagon and found myself sitting in my living room on Sunday mornings relaxing and spending precious time with my family. I guess that is the trade off when one is volunteering 20 hours a week to church ministry.
Near the end of my time at my last church I was feeling that I was going to have to choose between my family or the church. One doesn't get in much family time when working 50 hours a week and volunteering 20 hours at church. I was completely overwhelmed by guilt when I was at church and away from my family and the opposite when I was with my family. I found myself giving myself guilt trips in my mind. "You should be working on those songs for Sunday," or "You should be spending time with your wife and son instead of spending your time practicing." It was a back and forth battle for my allegiance and I could not continue.
I have been enjoying the time I have been able to spend with my family these last few weeks, but I still have this nagging guilt that says, "you should be in church, whats wrong with you?" It is a terrible feeling. However, I read this today from Manning, "He (meaning Jesus) was well aware of their feelings of shame and inferiority, and because of His compassion they were, in His eyes, of extraordinarily great value. As far as He was concerned, they had nothing to fear. The kingdom was theirs." I gotta tell you, I nearly started to cry when I read these words. First of all because God thinks that I am  of "extraordinarily great value" and second that I have nothing to fear, the kingdom (according to Jesus) is mine! What an awesome thought to ponder in the light of such trying times.

The Ragamuffin Gospel Continued

As I continue to read this powerful book on the grace of God I found afresh what I have seemed to overlook for so long. The apostle Paul makes one of the strongest and most life changing statements in the history of mankind. "All that I can say is that I forget the past and I strain ahead for what is still to come". (Philippians 3:13) If you have read anything about Paul you should know that in his pre-christian years he was a christian killing machine. He would lead bands of Jews to different towns just to beat, imprison, torture, and kill Christians. He was witness to the first person (besides Jesus) to ever lay his life down for Christ, Stephen. In fact as Stephen was being stoned the men doing the stoning laid their cloaks at his feet. Paul was not a very nice man. Then, like God must do with so many of us He knocked Paul on his ever lovin' behind and told him to stop killing Christians. Now, I don't know allot about God, but one thing I do know is that when God sits you down on your backside there is nothing you can do but listen.

Long story short, Paul converts to Christianity and starts preaching the word of God to anyone who will listen. So how does a guy like Paul forget the awful things that he had done in his past? I mean, I feel that I have done some pretty crummy things in my time, but how does one forgive himself for killing people he would now love?

When Christ died on the cross all of our past failures, miss steps, and mishaps were forgotten. They are vaporized in the bug zapper of history. The past no longer matters. It is only the future, what is to come, that matters.
Stay tuned, there is still so much to be learned and shared about The Ragamuffin Gospel. Join in, I would love to hear your thoughts on the subject. Feel free to comment.

The Ragamuffin Gospel

A few weeks ago I purchased a book from a used book section in a store. "The Ragamuffin Gospel" by Brennan Manning. I had previously borrowed and read this book a few years back, but I felt I needed to read it again. I was lucky enough to stumble upon a first edition hardcover. I love finding first edition books. They still have some imperfections with spelling and with this particular book the type looks as though it was printed with a typewriter. All of this aside "The Ragamuffin Gospel" is an amazing read.
As I was reading last night I ran across this quote that really struck me.

          "Fyodor Dostoyevsky caught the shock and scandal of the gospel of grace when he wrote: 'At
           the last Judgment Christ will say to us, 'Come, you also! Come, drunkards! Come, weaklings!
           Come, children of shame!' And he will say to us: 'Vile beings, you who are in the image of the
           beast and bear his mark, but come all the same, you as well.' nd the wise and prudent will say,
           'Lord, why do you welcome them?' And he will say: 'If I welcome them, you wise men, if I
           welcome them, you prudent men, it is because not one of them has ever been judged worthy.'
           And he will stretch out his arms, and we will fall at his feet, and we will cry out sobbing, and
           then we will understand all, we will understand the Gospel of grace! Lord, your kingdom come!"

"Will Christ actually welcome those who are marked by the evil one?" This was the first question I found myself asking after reading this quote. The answer I came up with is "I don't know". The gospel of grace is such a mystery to us as humans because we can't really grasp the vastness of God's grace. How are we to take hold of something that is so all encompassing as grace? Even the premise of Holy, God given, all covering grace is so hard for us to take hold of and accept that we in the church had to come up with a way to some how still attach duty to the free gift of grace. "All you have to do is pray this prayer". When you have to put the words "all you have to do" before you can receive grace it takes away the word "free" from "free gift of grace". If you have to do something for free grace, the grace really isn't free. There is nothing we can do earn God's grace. It isn't saying a set of words that will get you into heaven. It is simply knowing that God is offering free grace and you receive it.
This old hymn written by William R. Newell has been running through my head all night: "Mercy there was great, and grace was free; Pardon there was multiplied to me; There my burdened soul found liberty, At Calvary." This chorus certainly does display the freeness of God's grace.
I know this blog seems incomplete but I plan on discussing the gospel of grace much further as I continue to work my way through the book "The Ragamuffin Gospel" and I hope that it may help those who may be struggling with accepting the fact that there is nothing a person can do to earn God's grace.

Weekend of Firsts

It has been a great weekend! The leaves have been falling at a steady pace this week and so I took advantage of my weekend off to rake a few of the leaves into a large pile for me and Marcus to jump in. This was the first time Marcus has played in the leaves and he really wasn't too sure about those crunchy, itchy, things that were all over the ground. However, after I showed him how it was done by falling backward into the large pile he felt somewhat more at ease about touching them. He didn't really want to get into the pile, but he had fun tossing the leaves up in the air and feeling them fall on his head.
That was last night. This morning we were out side again playing and I felt I need to take care of the large pile of leaves I had created the night before. After removing the pile from the lawn and spending several minutes chuckling at our neighbor who was using a blower to clear his lawn (which took him twice as long as me) I decided to grab a drink from the hose. It didn't take long for Marcus to want to try it too.
What a wonderful weekend of firsts for the little guy. First playing in the leaves and then a drink from the garden hose. There are few moments that can make a father more proud than I was this weekend.
As I told Renee this morning, sometimes things like that just melt your heart. I couldn't be prouder of my little ragamuffin!

The Weight of Our Words

The other night my family and I were out for our nightly run. We had just started out when we were stopped by someone from our former church who just moved into a rental house down the street. She was just leaving and jumped out of her car and ran over to my wife and I and gave us both a big hug. Both my wife and I got the feeling that there may be some rumors going around about the reasons we left the church. You see the first thing out of this persons mouth was "I have been so worried about you guys". Now why would she need to be worried about us. We have a strong marriage, a strong family, and a healthy support system behind us.
As we talked about our encounter later that evening my wife and I couldn't come up with any other opinion than there must be some rumors being spread around. Now my wife and I have been Christ followers for quite a few years now and we both know that gossip and rumors are one of the most destructive things to occur in the church.
My dad has been the pastor of a small church for 25 years and I can tell you that I have seen people be ripped to shreds by the words of others in the church. To be honest I can see why people outside the church would think twice about becoming apart of it. Christians seem to rip each other apart if they get the chance and to be honest I have been guilty of this sin myself.
All of us as Christ followers need to check ourselves before we wreck our relationships with those inside and outside the church. So just stop and think before you speak, and if you find someone saying something hurtful about someone else walk away or stop them in their tracks before they cause allot more harm than good.

Talking in my sleep has been fairly harmless until last night when I apparently woke my husband up at midnight and told him there was a bat in our room. (If you know Aaron, you know he has an incredible fear of bats...) He kicked me out of the room, wielded his weapon of choice (broom) and checked the bedroom for the bat. Meanwhile, out in the hallway, I started to wake up enough to realize I had no idea what was going on.

He still doesn't find it as humorous as I do.

I love you Aaron - thank you for being my protector!

Sweet Songs From the Bathroom

This evening my wife took me out to Applebees for my 30th birthday. She invited some of my closest friends and we sat around the table talking it up. My wife sends me to the bathroom with my son to change his diaper. As I am in the restroom with my sons dirty rear facing me I hear the mysterious sounds of singing coming through the restroom door. Just a minute later I hear the mysterious singing stop abruptly. And then it happened! I hear clapping and laughing. All of the sudden the bathroom door flings wide open and two of the worst singing waiters start to singing... "happy, happy birthday from Applebees to you. Happy, Happy birthday"... blah, blah, blah.
My son nearly fell off of the baby changing table when these far from professional singers came bursting through the door. I thought this was the best birthday song in the world!!! I have never been wished happy birthday in a bathroom, and an Applebees bathroom at that. Thanks babe, this was an unforgettable birthday dinner ever!!

Getting Ready for the Deer

Thank goodness that I had a day off today. I have been in the Christian retail business for almost eight years now and it never gets easier. I started out on the lowest rung of the proverbial ladder and over the years have worked my way up to Assistant Store Manager. To say that I dislike working in Christian retail would be putting it lightly. It is always the same and it seems that you never make any progress. In fact it seems these days that our store has been moving backward not forward. Our area has been hit hard this year by the economy and road construction. We are on a main shopping street which sees thousands of cars each day. They have cut it down to one lane only going one way for the last 5 - 6 months. Many of the local business owners are not none to happy. So I say all this to say, it sure was nice to have a day off.
Shockingly this post is not about my job, but rather about preparing for the opening of firearm deer season here in Michigan. Earlier today I went out to set up my brand new tree stand ( I had to buy a new one because someone made off with my old one). I left my place around 1 pm and drove for 30 minutes or so to get to my hunting location. When I left the house the sky was overcast, but it wasn't raining it the weather has been like this for several days so I figured "oh, it isn't going to rain", but boy was I wrong. When I arrived at my desired destination I unloaded all the gear I would need to put up my new stand only I forgot one of the most important parts.
I lugged the ladder stand out to the woods and picked out a fairly nice tree to hook it to. The sky once again started to drip its sweet life giving water only this time it was dripping at more of a trickle. I thought "no big deal I can get this thing up in a few minutes". Two hours later and a return trip to the car later I realized I was not quite the skilled woodsman I thought myself to be. By this time the trickle had turned to a full on hose spray of life drowning water. I was soaked from the tips of my toes to the top of my head. I was cold and wishing I would have chosen a different day to put up my stand.
However, God has a way of making lemons out of lemonade. On my way out of the one acre wood I saw in the fare corner of the field a mighty four point buck. Now mind you it has been at least six years since I had seen a buck of any kind in this woods. God showed me that my work was not in vein and that something good would come from the soaking wet two hours I had just put into my deer season.

He also showed me that my eight years of hard work in Christian retail will not be in vein either.

My Final Goodbye to Facebook

Can't believe I found a youtube video that says everything I want to say.

So Long and Farewell

Over the past few days I have been pondering the reasons I have for removing myself from the very popular and addictive social network site known as “facebook”. There weren't many reasons why I joined the social network in the first place. I basically wanted to be apart of what everyone else was apart of, but I had no idea what I was getting myself into.


Growing up I was always living my life through others or even better not living it at all. In high school I always considered myself as having friends, but those friends were a few people who took five minutes to stop and talk to me. The truth is I was lonely. I remember times that I would sit at home and wish that I had somewhere to be or someone to hang out with, but the truth was, I knew I was alone. I was alone, depressed, and at one point suicidal. Life in my life was no life at all.

I came out of my depression and actually made some authentic and lasting relationships. Life in my life was actually starting to look like life. I was happy and fulfilled. Enter facebook. Slowly I became a recluse again. Walling myself into myself.

For me facebook creates a way for me to deceive myself into thinking that I was being relational when really I was pulling myself away from the real world. Sure I was looking at pictures of real people who would from time to time send me messages, but for the most part I was once again alone. Instead of forcing myself to get out and actually rub shoulders with others I tricked myself into thinking I was communicating with people. I have found myself sitting in front of my computer waiting for someone to talk to me. I was back in that place of thinking “why isn't anyone talking to me?” when the reality was that I wasn't talking to anyone else either. This thinking is the beginning of “social network depression.”

As I said in a recent post on facebook, “I can't stand all the changes” and its so true. I can't stand the changes that have occurred on facebook or in my personal life.

So these are the reasons I have chosen to unplug from the matrix. It is my prayer that if there is anyone else who is dealing with “social network depression” as I call it, that they would be encouraged to step out, choose the “blue pill,” unplug from the matrix, and communicate face to face with real human beings. Humans need actual human to human touch and face to face contact is the only way to do so.

Now is the time when I say... Play the video!!

Hunt Deer, Save the Planet

Just watched a t.v. episode on going green and the many things we can do to save the planet. They suggested that we purchase electric cars, unplug all appliances before leaving the house, turn off all your lights when not in use, and planet your own vegetables. I think some of the things are a little extreme such unplugging "all" the appliances in your house when not in use, but some of the things they said are just common sense. However, I think that hunting your own food can also save the planet. Think about it. If I drive to the store (in my non-electric car) and buy a pound of beef (which was packaged by a machine which is always plugged in and uses plastic which is NOT biodegradable), fry up the meat on my stove (which again is always plugged) and then freeze that meat (again, my freezer is always plugged in) for one year, I am pretty sure I will make the hole in the ozone a mile bigger.
However, if I were to go out and shoot a Deer with a shot gun using one bullet (which is reloadable) and clean the Deer myself using a knife and my muscles and chunk up the meat and use a hand grinder to make venison burger out of that meat and then wrap it in paper and freeze it, I think I just might save a whole lot of ozone. (Wow, that was one big run-on-sentence)
Hunting is not only helping us to save the planet it is also helping us to consume our lands natural resources so that we do not continue to destroy the environment, but rather help it thrive.
So the next time some talks your ear off about how hunting is wrong, just tell them the long run-on-sentence that I just told you. Even if they don't agree with you the sentence is so long that they will zone out and not even know what you just said.

Hunt Deer, Save the Planet!!

Wiggles vs. Mighty Machines

This morning our family sat down and watched the Wiggles for the first time. I barely survived. I don't know why four grown men would want to be so stupid. Marcus didn't even like it. So, we are now on to watching Mighty Machines. A much better show for a boy. He loves it. There aren't any songs being sung or idiots dancing around a stage. Just big steal machines doing mighty things. Now that is a show I want my boy to be watching.

Back to the Heart

Scripture: Hosea 1:2-3


What does it mean to worship?

There is always that pat answer that everyone gives. “It means to sing and give praise to God”. I would venture to say that our worship today seems to be more about us than it is about God. I know that many times that is what it is for me. I find that more times than not I am just going through the motions of worship. You know, sing a song here, sit down here and listen to a sermon, get back up lead another song, sit back down, try to act like I’m listening. I find myself wishing I was any where but where I am and I think the reason I feel this way so often is that I have made worship about myself. Do you ever feel that? Do you ever feel as though you have made worship about yourself? Have you ever thought about it?

It seems that we are so tempted to whore ourselves out like Hosea’s wife (in a spiritual sense). You remember Hosea from the bible. God told him to go marry a whore. This is not something that I would recommend, but that’s what God told him to do. Really what God was referring to was the nation of Israel. Israel at that time had once again walked away from God, doing their own thing. God viewed Israel as a whore, but He was coming for her. He was coming to redeem her.

That gives me comfort to know that God isn’t going to allow us to stay where we are. He wants to move us from making worship all about ourselves and He wants to where we are now back to focusing on Him again. And to be honest this is where I feel I have been the last few months as I have been leading worship. I have been doing my own thing. Running the show the way I wanted it to be run and consequently that is exactly what it became for me, a show. My worship has been lukewarm to God and I feel that because it is lukewarm He is gagging on the things I call worship.

The great thing about the story and prophecies of Hosea is that God restores Israel. I love this story because there is something so powerful about the redemptive story that we are living. You see Israel is not the only nation on the map. Because of Christ we are the whore who is and will be restored. Even if we are running in the wrong direction God is coming to redeem what is rightfully His.

As I have been studying this scripture I realized something that I had never thought about before and it strikes me as so profound for my life at this time. We should not only worship God for what He has done, but more for what He is GOING to do. Sure I have heard other preachers and pastors say things like this, but for some reason it hits home today. God is coming back. He is going to come as a mighty warrior and he is going to fight for His bride the church and we will be His.

We need to come back to the reasons why we are to worship God. Here is a list of four reasons we are to worship God.

1. He first loved us.

2. He bought us with His life.

3. He has forgiven our sin.

4. He is coming to redeem us.

These are the four main reasons why we are to worship God. So often we tend to forget about the fact the God loves us. Most of the time I find myself stuck on the fact that Jesus died for me. It is not that it is a bad thing to get stuck on, but we cannot stay there. We have to move past the crucifixion to the empty tomb. Christ arose from the dead so that He can redeem us. If there was no resurrection then there could be no redemption. Jesus had to conquer sin and death so that we could be redeemed by his blood.

I know it sounds so cliché but we do have to get back to the heart of worship which is the redeeming power of Jesus Christ. Yes we sing songs about Jesus death, but we cannot forget the reason we can worship and that is the resurrection.

Is Your Meat Rotting?

As I have been thinking about the Sermon on the Mount that Jesus gave in Matthew 5 I am drawn in by verse 13. “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.”


I have been in church my whole life. My father is a pastor so naturally I have gone to church a very long time. I have heard this verse over and over again throughout the years. However, this is really sticking out to me today for whatever reason. I have always heard the illustration of salt preserving things like meat. But salt looses its saltiness over time.

However, I think this analogy doesn’t capture the whole point of the passage. Salt is one of the most abrasive natural substances known to man. Salt does tons of stuff. Yes, it can preserve things, but it also is a great cleaning agent. Reading on into verses 14-16; Jesus says, 14 "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven”.

So how do we keep our saltiness? All salt looses its saltiness at some time or another, right? What I think Jesus is saying here is this. Don’t let yourself get to the point where you are no longer going “against the grain” of this world. Don’t ever stop fighting and swimming up stream. Don’t start to loss your grip and start to become like this world, because that’s when you start losing your salt. That’s when you start becoming un-effective. When people stop feeling the sting of the salt in your life, look out because you’re starting to get bland and your meat is starting to rot.

I love the beginning of verse 14 because Jesus is telling us what we are. He is telling us that we are the light of the world. I love how that phrase sets a vision for us as believers. You ARE the light of the world. Not you are going to be the light of the world, someday, but right now you’re really not doing such a great job. He says you ARE the light of the world. That just makes me tingle all over because I am the light of the world. Jesus just told me so. However, there is a “but” that comes to my mind. Have I lost my saltiness? Jesus was salt too and people loved and hated Him for it. Notice that in the crucifixion story it is the religious leaders that find the salt of Jesus the most painful, the most repulsive. However, through out the life of Jesus sinners and thieves were the ones that found Him irresistible. His salt made them thirst for more.

Don’t lose your saltiness. Stay grounded in the Scriptures. Be the light that Jesus has empowered you to be. Shine before all men.